Porter



E. e'. PORN-2B.

CATCHEB FOR COMING MACHINES. APPLlcATeor-a FILED MAR.Y4. 1919.

Patented Sept. 23 1919.

SHEETS-SHEET 1.

IAol of INVENTOR A 11,316,644.vr

E.G.PORTEH CATCHER FOR COATING MACHINES. APPLICATION FILED MAH.4, 1919:

Patented Sept. 23, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

narran -srnrns rrnirlr EDG-AR G. PORTER, QF WOODLAWN, PENNSYLVAIWA.

l cA'rcHEn ron comune-MACHINES.

Toall whomgzv't may concemf Be it known that-I, EDGAR G. PORTER, residing at Woodlawn, in the `county of Beaver and State of Pennsylvania, a citizen of the United States, have invented or discovered certain new `and useful Improve, ments in Catchers for Coating-Machines, of. which improvements the following is a speck.

cation.

My invention relates to 4Aapparatus for catching and conveying sheet material, theA faces of which are coated or otherwise so treated that they are easily scratched or marred.v While unlimited to apparatus for catching any particular kindzofsheet material, my invention is particularly applica# ble to what is known -as a catcher mounted upon the top of a tin-pot in a'tin plate manuf facturing plant.v The purpose of such pot is to receive the tinned'plates as they pass from the' tin p ot and to cause them to advance to a' conveyer or other apparatus.-

As usually constructed such catchers inupon which there are keyed, or otherwise rigidly secured, metal disks arranged in pairs. One of the shafts is mounted in bearings backed by springs so that the faces 'of'all the disks of one shaft areasa unit held yieldingly vtoward Athe faces of the disks of the other shaft.

In the use of catchers such as justbriely described it has been found-that whenv two `or more plates simultaneously pass edgeto-edge between the disks, the lateral separation betweenone pair of' disks may, by

reason of the thickness of one plate, be so great as to prevent other disks from contactingwith the faces of a thinner plate. Also, ithas been found 4that by increasing the spring pressure upon the "yieldingly mounted shaft in an attempt to cause all disks to ,engage the plates fed between them,

some of the plates (usually the thicker excessive pressure. i

The object of my invent1on 1s to provide a catcher wherein the disks ofeach pair are ones) are scratched or otherwise marred by capable of receding the one from the other independently of any movement of relative recession of the disks ofanother pair or of the shafts upon which the disks are mounted I- whereby any desired number of plates oit different thicknesses lmay simultaneously pass. edge-to-'edge between the disks carried ltrated the preferred embodiment t l specification 'of Leiters raient. paimnmd sam., 23', wie, i I i' l, 1A I v u application mea marche, i919. serai no. 280,517.

In the accompanying drawings which l form part of this specification I' have illusof'my invention. Figure '1 shows the' machine in vertical longitudinal central-section of the machine; Fig. 2 a viewfin vertical transverse section on the plane indicated by the line IIf-II in Fig. 1; 3 a plan view, and on somewhat larger scale,l of the arrangement of rolls in the frame; Fig. 4:

an end elevation of the frame shown in Fig. 3; Figs. 5 and 6 transverse sections of the frame, the planes of section being indicated by the lines V-V andVL-Vll, Fig. 3; and Fig. 7 a view in longitudinal section through one ofthe sleeves on one of the shafts shown in Fig. 3,'the plane of section being indicated at VII- VIL Fig. 3.

AIn the illustrated embodiment of my in- .vention the tin pot, which may be of any suitable'construction, is incompletely illustrated at 1; In the upper part of the tinpot there is arranged a pair of delivery rolls 2 adapted to be driven in any suitable manner, and above such rolls and upon the tinpot the catcher is mounted. The catcher ini cludes a supporting frame 3 hung to a pivotpost 4 and capable of being swung laterally on such pivot-post to and from the operative position above the tin-potin which it is shown inthe drawings. This frame when brought to operative position is braced by the'extensible legs 5. In this frame, and

directly above the delivery rolls 2, extend shafts 6, geared to rotate in unison and in opposite directions, one of them being positively driven from a suitable source of power, preferably the same source as used for driving the rolls 2, as shown in Fig. 1.

` These two `shafts so geared together are yieldingly supported, so that they are capa-v ble of approaching one another under spring pressure or receding from one another by spring tension. For such purpose, as indicated particularly in Fis. 3 and 4, both shafts are journaled on boxes 15 which are so mounted inthe frame as to lio'at between oppositely acting springs ,16, 17 and 18, the

tension of which may be adjusted as by set screws 19.

The shafts 6 are provided each with a succession of disks 7, preferably made of metal, which rotate in unison with the shafts l pair may themselves. 'lhese disks are so arranged that they cooperate two-by-two, a disk on each of the two shafts forming one of each pair of disks, and between these pairs of disks the material is caught'and moved upwardly. To the end that the disks of each recede one from the other independently of the movements of the disks of the other pairs or of the movement of the shafts, the disks 7 are preferably mounted, not directly on the shafts 6, but on sleeves 8', and such sleeves in turn are mounted on shafts 6. rllhese sleeves surround the shafts, and rotate in unison with the shafts, but there is a looseness of 'fit between shaft and sleeve, which allows a limited amount of lateral play of sleeve on shaft. lllhile this may be accomplished in various ways, Fig. 7 shows the shaft to be provided. externally Iwith a collar 9 and the sleeve to be provided internalll with a bushing 10, the collar and bus iingl being interlocked by tongue and @groove engagement. The construction is such that while there is a limited lateral play of sleeve on shaft,.the two parts rotate in unison.

As seen particularly in Fig. 3, the sleeves 8 are externally engaged, preferably each at two points near the' opposite ends, by

saddles 1l. rlhese saddles 11 are carried upon arms extending from frame 3, and are spring-backed, the tension of the backing springs being adjustable by nuts 25 on the bolts 12. rllhe construction .is such that each of these sleeves, while it is rotatable with each of the shafts which it surrounds, is also yieldingly held at the range of its lateral move-ment and is extended as far as possible toward the companion shaft. As already stated, the disks Z are carried, not on the shaft, but on the sleeves, .and it is preferable to mount upon each sleeve two disks, one at each end adjacent to a saddle 11. The disks then cooperate two-by-two in single ioatv ing pairs; As is indicated in Fig. 3, the shafts maybe indefinitely extended in length,

Lamezia andthe number of disks may be indefinitely increased.

ln the operation of the catcher two or more sheets of different gages may be simultaneously engaged by the catcher, and the pressure of each pair of disks, beingl independently applied, will be such as to properly grip the plates without marring them.

l claim as my invention:

l. ln a catcher for plate-coating machines, the combination of a frame, rotary disks borne by said frame in two series, the disks of one series coperating with those of the other series, the two series of disks being yieldingly held each as an entirety in operative relative positions, and the several disks being movable against spring pressure independently of other disks in the same series.

2. lln a catcher for plate-coating machines, the combination of a pair of rotary shafts arranged parallel one to another, and yieldingly heldadjacent one to another, a plui ralitl of disks borne by each of said shafts, the isks borne by one shaft being movable with respect thereto against spring pres- -sure in a direction transversely of the shaft,

maintaining in the range of such movement a unity of rotation with the shaft.

3. ln a catcher for plate coating' machines, the combination of a pair of rotatable shafts arranged in parallel position and spring-impelled each toward the other,'a plurality of sleeves surrounding each of said shafts, each connected toits shaft and rotatable therewith, the said sleeves being spring-impelled laterally upon the sustaining shaft in a direction toward the opposite shaft, and disks borne integrally upon said sleeves at opposite .ends thereof.

in testimony whereof l have hereunto set my hand.

i i, EDGAR Gr. PRTER.

lllitnesses:

T. M. Grmnnna, 0. E. Gontier. 

